[acchow]

But 5000km is shorter than many major routes, right?

Shanghai to Los Angeles is more than double that

[Qwertious]

The route length isn't important, only the longest distance between ports that you can recharge at. Cargo ships regularly slow steam (I.e. run the engine slow to improve fuel-efficiency) and stopping to recharge batteries at multiple ports to reduce the batteries needed is the exact same concept - sacrificing speed to improve fuel costs.

Shanghai to LA is probably the worst example (since the pacific ocean is basically the emptiest spot on the planet, as land/port frequency goes), but Hawaii still exists and they could recharge there.

[stavros]

How does Hawaii produce its power? I can't imagine they have tons of capacity.

EDIT: Seems like they mostly use imported oil, so saying "bring us a bunch of oil and we'll charge your batteries with it" seems like the ship is just burning oil with extra steps.

[rgmerk]

In any case, the near-term use case isn’t across the Pacific, it’s to other Asian ports, of which there are numerous very large ones in reasonably close proximity. Think Singapore, Japan, Korea, and so on, all of which are well within 5000km of Chinese ports.